Ye Q Zünd G Benedikt P Jockenhoevel S Hoerstrup SP Sakyama S Hubbell JA Turina M 2000 OBJECTIVE In tissue engineering, three-dimensional biodegradable scaffolds are generally used as a basic structure for cell anchorage, cell proliferation and cell differentiation. The currently used biodegradable scaffolds in cardiovascular tissue engineering are potentially immunogenic, they show toxic degradation and inflammatory reactions. The aim of this study is to establish a new three-dimensional cell culture system within cells achieve uniform distribution and quick tissue development and with no toxic degradation or inflammatory reactions. METHODS Human aortic tissue is harvested from the ascending aorta in the operation room and worked up to pure human myofibroblasts cultures. These human myofibroblasts cultures are suspended in fibrinogen solution and seeded into 6-well culture plates for cell development for 4 weeks and supplemented with different concentrations of aprotinin. Hydroxyproline assay and histological studies were performed to evaluate the tissue development in these fibrin gel structures. RESULTS The light microscopy and the transmission electron microscopy studies for tissue development based on the three-dimensional fibrin gel structures showed homogenous cell growth and confluent collagen production. No toxic degradation or inflammatory reactions could be detected. Furthermore, fibrin gel myofibroblasts structures dissolved within 2 days in medium without aprotinin, but medium supplemented with higher concentration of aprotinin retained the three-dimensional structure and had a higher collagen content (P<0.005) and a better tissue development. CONCLUSIONS A three-dimensional fibrin gel structure can serve as a useful scaffold for tissue engineering with controlled degradation, excellent seeding effects and good tissue development. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/161719 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/s1010-7940(00)00373-0 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/10814924 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery. - 2000 Aorta Aprotinin Biomedical Engineering Cells, Cultured Collagen Extracellular Matrix Fibrin Gels Heart Valve Prosthesis Humans Tissue and Organ Harvesting Fibrin gel as a three dimensional matrix in cardiovascular tissue engineering. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501